Day trippers, not tippers

 

Tuesday 3 June 2025

Another untypically (or so we're told) sunny day, so we decided to take a sightseeing tour outside the city along the Columbia River Gorge. (Had we been in Portland for longer, we would have gone to the coast, but it was the kind of trip difficult to achieve by public transport in a day. Next time, if there is one.)

We took the bus back to Nob Hill to visit another branch of the St Honore, the lovely French bakery - my cafe au lait there was the best coffee I had in north America to be honest! We decided against paying $7 to enter the Peculiarium emporium of weird objects, which had looked like fun on the website but in acuality was a bit tired and tatty and had a grumpy owner, who seemed annoyed by us arriving at opening time because he wasn't already there to open up. So we had a wander in the city before a great value light Italian lunch at Pastini, as it was near the pick-up point for the tour. We were a mercifully small group, though one silly man in front of us was trying to video most of the journey through the windscreen on his phone with the driver's head and the passenger headrest in front in the way. We wouldn't have minded but he complained that it was a difficult task with the coach constantly moving...

The half-day tour cost over $90 each, so let's say we had reasonably high expectations. The driver of the van/guide was a hippy called Daniel (he said "alrighty" a lot, which grated a bit after a while), and during the trip he supplied quite a lot of useful information about Portland's history, geology and environment as we drove along the historic highway 30 which was actually built to enable tourism in the region. Aside from Mt Hood, Portland nestles beneath Mt St Helen's, an active volcano that last erupted in 1980 but according to Daniel won't do so again during his lifetime (bet there were a few Sicilians saying that about Etna...) 

Portland was largely populated by settlers from the Oregon Trail 1839 - 1869, and those who didn't make it as far at the Yukon during the Gold Rush. Many Irish and Chinese itinerant immigrants became forced labour on the railways via the notorious Shanghai Tunnels which formed the city's underworld (our equivalent would be press-ganged I guess), and there was a good deal of anti-Chinese feeling - but the aforementioned Henry Pittock employed Chinese domestic staff and his newspaper came out against the haters.

Anyhoo, a more enlightened Portland also appointed the first female chief of police, Lola Baldwin, but by all accounts she wasn't a barrel of laughs (dancing inevitably led young women into debauchery - who knew?) and ushered in prohibition in 1914. 

Our first quick stop on the Recreational Reserve of 14000 acres created in 1915 was Vista House, a monument on a promontory and currently under refurbishment, but erected in 1918 at a viewpoint with the Portland Basin to the west and Washington state to the east. It was certainly a camera-worthy scenic view. We then moved on to a number of waterfalls, driving along through forests of vine maple trees and Douglas firs (I saw a bust of Mr Douglas somewhere this trip, but damned if I can remember where). 

All waterfalls are pretty. These are no exception; though not Niagara or Gulfloss-like in their scale, they're surrounded by beautiful wooded areas and gush from volcanic basalt cliffs. The first we saw was Latourell Falls, followed by Shepherd's Dell (there was a Shepherd family, but not a sheep in sight). 

Wahkeena (translates as "most beautiful") Falls were at a viewpoint and a cross section of trails created by logger and philanthropist Simon Benson, but the most commercialised falls are the Multnomah which are the highest (600 feet+ over two different drops) and boast a large car park off the highway, gift shop, visitor centre, snack bar and loos. 

This was our final stop and it had been a very pleasant afternoon with much beauty to behold. However, Daniel then made it awkward when on the final half mile back into the city he brough up the subject of tips. He said that he and his colleagues (who presumably run the company between them, pay themselves and share the profits) are competing for the highest number of five-star reviews, and in order to continue doing a job that he loves, he needs tips. Lucy and I had agreen that unless the tour was exceptional, we wouldn't tip as it was pretty expensive in the first place at over $90 a head for an afternoon. As Lucy is also a tour guide, she's a pretty good judge of what's fair, and we'd had no hesitation in tipping the two walking guides we'd had in Seattle and Portland. 

We got off the bus, and Daniel basically demanded a tip by calling after us that he had a card reader if we didn't have cash to give him. His reaction when I politely declined to tip due to the cost of the tour and Lucy promised a good review was barely short of a snarl - and it set me against giving him a tip even more! 

We stretched our legs by walking to a Peruvian restaurant called Andina which had featured in a guide to Portland. The food was expensive but very good. We whiled away the time until the BA check-in opened 24 hours ahead of our flight, and then got an Uber back to the apartment with a driver who just grunted. He wasn't getting a tip either.